Over the past thirty years, telephony has significantly evolved from the once-ubiquitous public switched telephone network (PSTN) service. Telecommunications consumers today have a wide range of telecommunications options to choose from, including traditional landline phone service, IP-based telecommunications services (based on, for example, Voice over Internet Protocol), cellular telecommunications services, and converged telecommunications services (such as Unlicensed Mobile Access or UMA).
Telecommunications devices now include a myriad of form factors, such as traditional landline phones, cordless phones, cellular phones, smart phones, PDA phones, desktop and portable computers, media players, home telecommunications hubs, or the like, which have become a ubiquitous part of modern life. Originally, most of these telecommunications devices just provided two-way voice communication between a first person at a first location using a first telecommunications device and a second person at a second location using a second telecommunications device, so that the first person and the second person were able to carry on a conversation. For example, a voice communication or call normally involved real-time, duplex, synchronous voice communications, in which all participants hear the other participants in real time, all participants can simultaneously speak, and all participants are actively engaged and respond directly and immediately to each other without significant interruption.
More recently, telecommunications devices have become so sophisticated as to be considered computing devices. Advances in technology have added an ever increasing array of features and capabilities to telecommunications devices, such as touch screens, video and still cameras, web browsing capabilities, email sending and receiving capabilities, music and video download, storing and playback capabilities, calendar and contact managing capabilities, GPS (global positioning system) location and navigation capabilities, game playing capabilities, and television capabilities, to name a few. Many of these features and capabilities are provided through specialized applications resident on the telecommunications devices. For example, many telecommunications devices allow the user to further customize the device through custom configuration options or by adding third-party software. Such software is available for many different functions, not limited to communications. For instance, a variety of applications, such as dedicated computer programs or software, applets, or the like, can be loaded on a telecommunications device by the consumer, the network service provider, or by the telecommunications device manufacturer. These applications can then be activated on the telecommunications device as needed or desired by the user, or as particular functions of the telecommunications device are accessed. These applications can then be activated on the telecommunications device as needed or desired by the user, or as particular functions of the telecommunications device are accessed.
Further, many network service providers or telecommunications device manufacturers now provide portals or websites from which users may purchase various applications, content and/or data files (i.e., an “app store”) to add various capabilities, features and media to their telecommunications devices. These network service providers or manufacturers also enable third parties to create third party applications that can be downloaded and used on the telecommunications devices. For example, an app store might make available for download a large number of applications written by third parties, in addition to applications provided by the network service provider or by the telecommunications device manufacturer. The third party applications and service provider/manufacturer applications might typically be marketed for a specified download fee, and may be purchased from the app store through the Internet or over the network service provider's own network. By picking and choosing which applications to download to a particular telecommunications device, the telecommunications device owner can decide which corresponding capabilities the particular telecommunications device will be endowed with. Further, word-of-mouth or viral marketing can contribute greatly to the sales success of particular applications. For example, a particular user might show an application on her telecommunications device to her friends, who will then purchase the application for use on their own telecommunications devices. In some cases, the application might be transferred to the telecommunications devices for a free trial and the users are then given an option to purchase the application.
A limitation of such application, content and data distribution systems, however, is that they require a telecommunications device user to visit an electronic storefront, negotiate the presented interface, and then negotiate a purchase path in order to receive the data. In addition, if a telecommunications device user wants to share data (for instance, a collection of digital photographs) with a friend, she must negotiate a series of user interfaces allowing her to upload the data to a repository where her friend may access the data, or transmit (e.g., e-mail) the content directly to the friend.